This invention relates to dentistry in general, and more particularly to an adjustable dental drill guide for locating holes to be drilled in dentition so as to receive a dental retaining splint for the reinforcement of the dentition.
The use of dental splints generally requires a high degree of skill, and in the prior art such splints have been limited in their use. Because of the requirement for involved and complicated procedures in the preparation of the teeth, as well as the limitations involved in the splint structure itself, the use of such splints has in the past been restricted. In many cases they were used only with anterior teeth where horizontal parallelism of the splint could be achieved. Additionally, the time involved and the discomfort to the patient has also prevented widespread use of such splinting devices.
An improved dental retaining splint which avoids many of the prior art problems was described in the aforementioned co-pending parent application. Such dental retaining splint has an elongated bar-like member with a number of tubular members extending therefrom. The splint is first temporarily held in a channel formed in adjacent teeth with the tubular members extending upwardly from the teeth. The tubular members have axial openings therethrough and such axial openings are used as guides for a drill to form pilot holes in the teeth. The splint is then removed and the pilot holes function as lead holes for the formation of enlarged bores to receive the tubular members therein. The splint is then repositioned in the channel so that the tubular members are now disposed downwardly into the bores formed therefor. An inlay fills the channel and covers the splint in the final procedure step.
While such a retaining splint has expanded the possibility of utilizing splinting devices for the reinforcement of dentition, in many situations the length of a required splint will not be in accordance with a predetermined standard size. In certain situations the teeth may be so large that the size of the splint which is required is longer than the standard size. Additionally, when a splint is required to extend across more than two teeth, the splint will have to be made with at least one arcuate section so as to conform to the arcuate arrangement of the teeth. This will require bending and shaping of the dental splint to conform to the desired arc. Also, in utilizing the dental splint of the aforementioned co-pending parent application, it is necessary to securely retain the splint in the channel during the formation of the pilot holes. Typically, dental wax is used for such retention. However, by utilizing such dental wax, additional discomfort, time, and manipulating is required of the patient's teeth which may frequently be undesirable.
Additionally, even when utilizing dental splints of the type described in the aforementioned parent application, it is frequently desired to modify the spacing between the bores in order to avoid drilling into the pulp tissue of the teeth. By utilizing predetermined lengths of the dental splints, it is not always feasible to provide such facility for adjustment of the spacing between the bores.